I agree Jordan, and it can even be taken further by asking whether it's fair for China and India to be "punished" just because they are industrializing later than the West did. My big hope is that at the end of the day, everyone pulls their fair share. The skeptic in me worries we're too focused on what others think of us as a nation and that a lot of major emitting nations have bigger worries than climate conferences and carbon goals.
I think Neil Young and Al Gore (and all the others) focus on us because we're a friendly, democratic energy producing country that's safe to protest against. I welcome them to try that in Russia, Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia etc. The irony is that a lot of citizens get behind this "anti" sentiment because it's easy and hip to complain about oil and gas while driving an SUV to a 3,000 square foot house with four laptops and three other cars in the garage. There's a certain irony in the fact that when everyone has it so good, they forget about the conditions that enabled that prosperity. If we nail our energy industries too hard, money will go elsewhere as it always does. Hunger pains won't feel any better if we're righteously unemployed.